Mainly grown in Jamaica, Africa, India, China and Australia, ginger is the root of the plant. It…

To decorate

50g icing sugar

a few glacé cherries (we used undyed)

2 balls stem ginger

Method

Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment. Melt butter, sugar and syrup in a pan. Mix flour, soda, spices and a pinch of salt in a bowl. Stir in the butter mix and chopped ginger to make a stiff-ish dough.

Wait until cool enough to handle, then roll out dough to about 5mm thick. Stamp out gingerbread men, re-rolling and pressing the trimmings back together and rolling again. Lift onto baking sheets. Bake for 12 mins until golden. Cool 10 mins on the sheets, then lift onto cooling racks.

To decorate, mix icing sugar with a few drops of water until thick and smooth. Halve then slice cherries thinly to make smiles, and cut ginger into small squares. Spoon icing into a food bag, snip off the tiniest bit from one corner, then squeeze eyes and buttons, and a tiny smile onto 1 man at a time. Stick on a cherry smile and ginger buttons. Repeat; leave to set. Will keep up to 1 week in an airtight tin.

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Comments, questions and tips

Comments (66)

Bysh12th Jan, 2012

1

Wish I had read through the reviews more thoroughly before starting to make this. As other reviewers have said, nasty to work with; very crumbly and greasy, difficult to put onto the baking tray without falling apart.Seem ok when cooked but will not be using this recipe again. Surprised its on the Good Food website.

I just made these and they came out like biscuits. Are they suposed to be like this or soft like a spiced bread?(Though, I am sure that the temperature and time were a little bit to much for their size, they were a bit golden brown on the sides...)If anyone could help me clearing out this issue, it would be great (for future baking).

I have given this recipe 3 stars because it tastes lovely but I was disappointed at just how crumbly and difficult to work with the dough was. Wish I'd read the comments about adding an egg first! Run out of bicarb now. Any designs I had on making elaborate festive shapes to decorate as tree decorations have been reduced to a simple Christmas bauble. I hope I can get creative with my piping bag to make them look more exciting.

Adding an egg saves the day, the mix was really crumbly and got worse on cooling so I mixed an egg into it as others suggested and it behaved far better, easier to roll and cut. Loved the end product, would bake again, mine took 8 minutes in a fan oven

I'm onto my second batch of these. After reading the earlier comments about the dough being difficult to work with and after referring to some other recipes I decided to use an egg and I'm pleased to say I haven't had any problems with the mix being too crumbly.Overall though it's fantastic!!

I made these for my friends as a Christmas present and they were delicious!! They were very easy to make and loads of fun to decorate....children could make them WITH supervision (of course ) :) !!!A fantastic recipe that I really liked!

Made these today. The mixture is a little crumbly so perhaps not the best recipe to use with small children but the taste and texture is lovely and surprisingly not too sweet. Just a pinch of cayenne gives the flavour a little 'bite'. Yummy!

Although the taste was lovely, they are definitely not a recipe for making with a three year old. The dough was so crumbly, yet sticky. It stuck to the rolling pin, despite copious amounts of flour and cracked as you rolled, even on the first roll out. Very frustrating for mum and eager child!!!

I've tried this recipe several times and each time it's crumbly and impossible to work with! It definitely needs at least 4tbsp of golden syrup to actually bind the dough! Once recovered it tastes lovely but the recipe definitely needs to be improved!

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